Sam Raimi "Loved" Marc Webb's 'The Amazing Spider-Man'

While Sam Raimi's maintained that his breakup with Sony's Spider-Man franchise was an amicable one, he's remained understandably reluctant to actually see where the property went next. While doing press for Oz: The Great and Powerful, Raimi likened seeing Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man to attending an ex-girlfriend's wedding. "I don't have the guts," he admitted.

But now it seems he's finally gotten over his unease. In a very recent interview, Raimi revealed that he'd finally gotten around to checking it out. And, as it turned out, he "loved" the results. Hit the jump to read his comments.

I didn't see the Spider-Man reboot. I know Marc Webb is a great director, and I love Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, but as much as I love those people and Amy [Pascal] and Laura Ziskin and Avi Arad, I just don't want to go to my girlfriend's wedding, with all due respect. I guess that means I'm a bad loser? I just love her too much! I just have to wait. It would be hard to see her with someone else ... with all those other men!

However, he more recently told Hey U Guys that he'd finally caved and seen the movie. Perhaps he just was tired of fielding questions about it? In any case, he offered his thoughts.

It was very hard for me to see the new Spider-Man movie, I felt so attached to it, I couldn't see Spider-Man with another director; it's like my love, and I didn't want to walk in on my love with someone else. It was just like that. Then I got over myself last week and said, 'just see the damn thing'. And I did, and I loved it. I actually felt free. I thought, 'why am I carrying around this baggage?' Of course the next Spider-Man story should be told, and [Marc Webb] did a wonderful job telling that. I loved the movie, and I'm looking forward like a fan to the next installment. I love the comic book, and now I don't feel bound, and I'm really glad somebody's remaking it again.

Raimi and Sony had originally planned to move ahead with Spider-Man 4, but when they couldn't make it work to their satisfaction the studio moved ahead with the reboot instead. One of the major criticisms of Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man was that it came too quickly on the heels of Raimi's trilogy, but it appears that Raimi, at least, has made peace with it.

The second installment of Webb's Spider-Man series is shooting now for a May 2, 2014 release.